


The Thing

by Cait_Sidhe



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Ernie Macmillan, Auror Ginny Weasley, Auror Ron Weasley, Aurors, Cats, Disturbing Themes, Eldritch, Gen, Horror, Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Monster(s), Mystery, POV First Person, Psychological Horror, Unreliable Narrator, Unspeakable Draco Malfoy, Unspeakable Harry Potter, Unspeakables (Harry Potter), auror dean thomas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 10:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19083562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Unspeakables Harry and Draco work with Aurors Ron, Ginny, Dean, and Ernie on a case involving mysterious disappearances and possible cult activity, after the previous aurors were killed in action. However, this case is anything but straightforwards... and does someone in the group know more than they're letting on?





	The Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Unlike most of my other horror fics, which borrow plots and themes from Lovecraft's works, this is my own unique attempt at Lovecraftian-style horror; let me know how it is in the comments, especially if I've succeeded in causing you to feel disconcerted!

“Why is he here?” Came a disgruntled complaint as a tall red-haired man, Ron Weasley, entered the office of the Auror Department head, Gawain Robards.

 

“Because he’s part of the team for our new case,” I exasperatedly told my best friend. “Seriously, Ron, can’t you get over the pettiness? It’s been a decade.”

 

“That isn’t what I meant!” 

 

I raised an eyebrow.

 

“Well, fine, maybe I did mean that, a little. But I was more referring to the fact that he’s not an auror… come to think of it, neither are you anymore, Harry...” Ron turned to Robards, an expectant look upon his face. “Why are there two Unspeakables in the auror department? Do I finally get to work on one of those supernatural mysteries they occasionally find for us?” he asked excitedly.

 

Draco Malfoy-- the one Ron had been complaining about-- and I glanced at each other before looking back towards Ron. “Something like that,” I admitted. “Though you shouldn't be so excited. You know these don’t always turn out according to plan.”

 

“More like, usually don’t,” Draco muttered quietly, causing me to give him a brief glare. Luckily, no one noticed that little exchange.

 

Robards nodded. “Yes, you must be careful. You aren’t the first auror team to work this case… before I brief you though, we need to wait for your partner-- ah, here he is-- and the other team for the case.”

 

“You’re putting two teams on this case?” asked Dean Thomas, a dark-skinned man with hair grown to his shoulders and tied into a small ponytail. He was one of my former roommates at Hogwarts. “Did something big happen?”

 

“It’s about the disappearances--”

 

“Didn’t you have a team on that already?” asked a voice from the doorway. I turned to look, finding a freckled woman with long red hair tied into a high ponytail-- Ginny Weasley, also known as my ex-girlfriend, Dean’s wife, and Ron’s sister. Now, I know at first glance that would seem like quite the conflict of interests, but it had been tested before: after we amicably broke up, Ginny and I had been auror partners, where we had successfully worked previously with Ron and Dean on collaborative assignments, before I joined the Unspeakables. 

 

“Yeah, Susan and Dennis, right?” added Ginny’s partner, Ernie Macmillan, with whom she had entered. He had also been in my year at Hogwarts, but in Hufflepuff; we didn’t socialize much, but he had been one of the few who actually believed me when I told everyone Voldemort had returned, and joined our secret defense club during fifth year, Dumbledore’s Army. I’d never worked with him on an assignment before, but given that history, I was sure no problems would arise.

 

Robards looked grim. “Yes, Bones and Creevy were on the case. However, they returned yesterday from the field with Bones babbling incomprehensibly-- she is now at St. Mungo’s-- and Creevy…” he took a deep breath. “Creevy was severely injured, and just an hour ago they informed me that he didn’t make it. I’ll be holding a department meeting when I finish briefing you to announce such. That is why I’m putting two auror teams on the case now, and requested two Unspeakables as well.”

 

Once the four aurors recovered from the shock of this news-- Draco and I had already known-- Ron posed the question they clearly were all wondering. “So, why are the Unspeakables involved with the case? Usually we’re the ones helping them with things, not the other way around.”

 

“I requested their help,” Robards replied, “because this is becoming a strange case, and the Unspeakables study strange things.”

 

“Got that right,” Dean interrupted. An unpleasant habit of his-- although, by far he was not the only one in the room with that tendency. “Unspeakables rarely leave their department, and they keep it locked down tighter than a nuclear bunker.”

 

“A what?” Ron asked.

 

“Muggle thing.”

 

“And typically when they need our help they give only the bare minimum of information,” Ginny added.

 

“If you keep talking, you won’t get any information, from anyone,” Draco pointed out in a bored manner, yet everyone began to pay attention again-- one of those skills his entire family seemed to have. Perhaps it was a pureblood thing, learning how to get people to listen-- Merlin knows it's a necessary skill when dealing with politics, as I learned from my reluctant involvement in such directly after the war.

 

Robards continued the briefing. “Based off of Susan’s and Dennis’s research, we believe it is potentially a cult we are working with, and given their conditions and interviews with both Susan and, before he passed, Dennis, we believe there may be some stock in what the cult is supposedly worshiping.”

 

“And the Unspeakables can help with this?” Ernie asked in slight confusion. “What exactly are you studying down there?”

 

“You’ll find out if needed,” I promised.

 

“If needed?” Ron began, “Mate, you know you can trust--”

 

Robards let out a little cough to draw the attention back to him. “Now, I’m going to assign the role of case leader to Harry-- since has been an Auror in the past, and is an Unspeakable now, he’s probably the best equipped to lead this joint investigation between our departments. Any objections?” Of course there weren’t, just as we had expected.

  
  


*******

  
  


“So, mind telling us specifically what things you study that are related to this case?” Ron asked, sometime later, as we were gathered in a large conference room sorting through the evidence Susan Bones and Dennis Creevey had gathered.

 

I sighed. “You know I can’t do that.” He was constantly asking me things like that, but I had been sworn to secrecy-- the entire point of the Department of Mysteries was to research things that should not become public knowledge.

 

“Aww, come on, I’m your best friend!” He was always trying to play that card to get me to spill, but I honestly can’t unless deemed necessary, and it was not necessary he know.

 

“Seriously?” Ginny said with incredulity. “We’re working on a case related to it! How can you still not tell us?”

 

“Because it isn’t necessary you know,” Draco said briskly.

 

“But why?”

 

‘Because, you might go a bit mad if you did,’ I thought, though said differently. “That isn’t your concern. If you really want to know, try petitioning the department, but we really can’t tell you.”

 

Ernie let out a snort. “What, did you take an unbreakable vow or something?”

 

I was quiet for a moment. “Or something.” I didn’t clarify, and they stopped their questioning, left to wonder exactly what it was I meant by ‘or something’. A bit of my Slytherin side showing though, I suppose, as in reality, the ‘or something’ was only possibly getting fired, potentially even an ‘obliviate’ depending on the research-- though we were safe from the latter, even if they did try to, thanks to some clever potioneering on Draco’s part, fully tested of course… Merlin, if the Ministry knew we’d be experimenting on ourselves, modifying our minds and bodies on work time, they would be outraged-- especially considering we were doing so using some of the forbidden books we had special access to, including the dreaded Necronomicon. Oh, but don’t worry! We barely used anything from that one, and definitely did not summon anything from it. Definitely not. Seriously, we didn’t, I swear.

 

“Hey, I think I found something,” Ernie piped up, interrupting the silence and waving a paper. There were a lot of case files to leaf through; Susan and Dennis had been on the case for more than a month.

 

“Let me see,” Ron said, taking the paper from him. “A list of names? ‘Potential cult members,’ it says on top. Huh. Guess it is cult-related.”

 

“Well, yes, Robards did tell you that,” Draco drawled with an eye-roll.

 

“Shut up, ferret.”

 

“Seriously? Resorting to petty name-calling again, weasel?”

 

“I found something with strange symbols, too,” Ginny said, interrupting before a physical fight broke out. Not that Draco would start such, but Ron, well, he could have a temper at times, especially when dealing with Draco, who never did much to deter it. I think he not-so-secretly enjoys being argumentative. “It says they were transcribed on some ancient tablet they found on the floor of the house of one of the people that vanished.”

 

“A tablet?” I asked. “May I see the paper?” She handed it to me, and I looked at it in both surprise and inward relief. These symbols… yes, this was undoubtedly related to our work, but thankfully wasn’t from the being I suspected, or so I thought. “Is it still at the house, or did they take it as evidence?”

 

“It’s in the evidence locker, it says.”

 

“Right, I’ll need you to go get that, and don’t touch the tablet, use a cloth or something… actually, no, just bring the whole evidence box, we should have it here anyway.”

 

“You recognize that?” asked Ron. “I mean, that isn’t any language I’ve seen.”

 

“Never seen such before, either,” I lied. “But ancient tablets and cult activity is awfully suspicious, isn’t it? It could have magic causing one to follow it, or detail some sort of ritual they used. Maybe it’s even what caused the vanishings.”

 

“You think the ones vanishing could be the cult members?”

 

“No, probably not,” Draco chimed in, as he leaned his chair back to put his feet on the table and opened a book. “Cults usually prefer members to stay around, not vanish elsewhere.”

 

“What’s that book?” Ginny wondered, looking over Draco’s shoulder on her way out, “I didn’t see any books with the notes… Hey! Those are the same letters from the tablet!”

 

Draco looked up in surprise, then quickly assumed his usually nonchalant expression. “Is it? I hadn’t noticed.”

 

I stormed over to Draco, giving him my best glare as I grabbed the book from him, closing it and reading the title. “Seriously? ‘Draíocht na Hoíche’? This isn’t supposed to leave the Room of Forbidden Tomes, let alone the Department of Mysteries! They’ll have our heads if they find out! Go return it, right now!”

 

“Y-yeah, I’ll do that.” He scampered out the door shamefully, and I felt a little guilty-- he did not do good with people scolding him in such a manner, especially with the amount of exaggerated anger I had put into it. Truly, I wasn’t mad, just a bit annoyed-- this blunder could complicate things.

 

I looked at the others and cringed at the expressions of surprised curiosity… they would ask about that, no doubt. If only we still had the rest of our team, we could have dealt with this all ourselves, but now the aurors were involved, asking questions-- being friends just made it more difficult to keep such secrets from them. Would it really hurt if they knew the kinds of things we studied? The department wouldn’t be at much risk, as I doubt they’d tell anyone if we told them not to. It could certainly affect their sanity, but they’ve been through war, so their mental restitution ought to be fairly sound.

 

“Ginny, hurry and get that box of evidence. Ron, Ernie, see if you can find anything else related to that list, and Dean, see if you can find anything else related to the tablet or writing on it.”

 

Dean crossed his arms and stared at me, an eyebrow raised. “Room of Forbidden Tomes?” 

 

I waved a hand in dismissal, hoping to come across as nonchalant as Draco always managed. “It’s nothing to worry about. Over-dramatised name essentially. Ancient and strange books they feel the public shouldn’t have access to, but we need for our research; honestly, Hogwarts has more dangerous books in their restricted section.” A complete lie, of course. Many of those books most people couldn’t even touch without suffering some loss of sanity. Obviously not the one Draco was looking at, probably, but that still didn’t mean he could just leave with it! What if someone got ahold of it and actually decided to use some of the spells and rituals without the proper precautions? Not that we use them, either, of course. Nope, never. Purely academic, honest!

 

Ron narrowed his eyes. “You know those symbols too, don’t you?”

 

“Er. And why would you think that?”

 

“You’re not the best liar, Harry,” Ernie told me. “Besides, if you had never seen the symbols before, you wouldn't have known what the book’s title was.”

 

I tried to suppress the blush coming on, but am pretty sure I failed. I had messed up, twice, within minutes-- first mentioning the room, then showing I knew the runes. Brilliant. “It’s… classified information. Please don’t let anyone know I told you. Although... I guess you would have had to know I’ve studied those runes anyway, to translate the tablet. But please please please do not mention to anyone you know about the room!”

 

“Okay, relax, Harry, we won’t,” Dean said with incredulity. He seemed to be surprised at my reaction. Did I overplay it?

 

“What the heck is going on here?” Draco asked, reentering the room, followed by Ginny, the latter who set a big box of evidence on the table. “I could hear Harry’s anxious wail from all the way down the hall!”

 

“They were questioning me about the room and symbols,” I told him meekly. 

 

Draco raised an eyebrow. “And did you tell them anything?”

 

“Er. Well,  _ I said that the room was where we kept secret books for research, but also lied and said they were non-dangerous. And they know we know the runes, but not specifically where they’re from or anything, just that we can read them!” _

 

Draco nodded, and responded in parseltongue too. Granting the ability to speak it was another one of our more successful experiments, though a painful one involving seven different types of venomous snakes; it was worth it, though. I had lost that ability after Voldemort’s bit of soul left me, and honestly had started to miss it. “ _ Okay. Just, please be careful! You know it’ll be problematic if we tell them anything more than strictly necessary.” _

 

_ “I know. Don’t worry… hold on. Don’t deflect; you were the one reading that book in here! If it weren’t for that, neither thing would be revealed.” _

 

“Details,” Draco said, waving his hand in dismissal. “Now, where-- er, why are you all staring at us?”

 

“You speak parseltongue.” Ron said, seemingly shocked. “How?”

 

“Ah, yes, that we do. As to how, well, that’s classified. Now--”

 

“You can’t expect to lead this investigation if you don’t trust us!” Ernie burst.

 

I looked at him in surprise. “Who said we don’t trust you?”

 

“You clearly know, or at least suspect, more about this than you’re saying! Clearly, there is something major going on here involving your work. You’re supposed to be working with us to solve this case. How can you if you don’t even tell us what the bloody hell you already know?”

 

“Look, we honestly don’t know the details of the case any more than you do-- that’s why we’re  _ investigating _ it. Together. All we know, like you, is that it doesn’t seem to be a typical case and is cult-related.”

 

“Bollocks,” scoffed Dean. “You know more than that. And you’re not very good at hiding it, either.”

 

I paused in consideration. On one hand, Ernie and Dean were correct-- we did know more, and we probably should put more faith in them. However, what if they got hurt? What if they couldn’t handle what was in the Department? What if they discovered too much? I sighed. Well, there was nothing for it; keeping stuff from them is always more trouble than it’s worth. “Fine, we’ll tell you.”

 

“Are you sure?” Draco asked in surprise, and I gave him a Look. “Fine… But you,” he turned to the aurors, “must PROMISE that you never speak of this to anyone else or let anyone overhear you talking about it. If you do, there will be repercussions.”

 

The four aurors looked shocked. I could tell they were more than a little freaked out by having to promise such, the threat, and by Draco’s tone of voice, no doubt wondering what was so imperative to keep secret. But if we were going to say everything, it couldn’t be here. “Come on; we’re going to use a room downstairs, if we’re doing this,” I told them.

 

Draco raised an eyebrow. “You sure, Harry? I mean, if we divulge our studies to them, and they tell, it’ll cause more than a little trouble, and not just for us or the Ministry.”

 

“I’m sure. I would trust them with my life-- have, already, in some cases.” I turned to them. “I trust you not to say a word. Now, let’s go.”

 

I have to say, I was actually somewhat nervous as I led the four aurors down to our department; it was a lot of people to bring there. Not that I really had to worry though, as I did have authorization to allow whomever I wanted in-- benefit of being the co-head of my specific sub-department within it. Not that that was such an impressive title though, considering there was only the two of us left. We made idle chit chat as we walked, as it had been a while since we’d all caught up. I saw Ginny, Dean, and Ron every Sunday for dinner at the Burrow, but we rarely got to talk freely with all the children around. Many of those who passed by seemed curious as to why two Unspeakables were with four Aurors, or perhaps simply curious as to what I in particular was doing, for some still had this inflated hero-worship towards me, but we ignored them. Finally, we reached the mysterious door that signified the entrance to the department. I wonder what my fifth-year self, plagued by dreams of this door, would have said if told him one day he’d have a job behind it. The door opened upon sensing our approach, and the group entered the black circular room with doors lining the walls. The floor spun so that we couldn’t tell which door was which. Not quite sure how they expected that to honestly deter anyone from getting in, as the rooms behind the doors were all connected, but the Ministry didn’t always think things through logically.

 

“So, how do we know which door is which?” Ron asked, venturing to the center of the room.

 

“First, don’t stand there,” I cautioned, pulling him back. “Here’s how.” I raised my wand, performing a complicated movement and reciting a complex verse. Upon finishing, the entrance to our department opened.

 

“No way!” gasped Ginny. “That wasn’t there last time we were here, was that? Back at school?”

 

“Of course it was. You just can’t find it without the right spell. Now hurry, before it closes.” I led them down the staircase that had appeared in the center of the floor, into a dungeon-like corridor with many unmarked wooden doors along the dark stone walls. Torches lit with a type of undying Greek Fire-- i.e., water-resistant fire-- lined the walls.

 

“Wicked!” Ron proclaimed. “Although a bit morbid and creepy. This is where you work?”

 

“Er, yeah, it is,” I admitted as we walked. “I don’t think it’s been remodeled in a few centuries, if ever. There’s a conference room we can use at the end of the hall; Draco, get the book to translate that new tablet, please. Dean, don’t go in there!”

 

“Why, what’s in-- oh, god!” He closed the door quickly, shivering slightly. “Wh-what are those things?”

 

“Nothing to concern yourself with. Just, only open the doors I say you can, okay?”

 

“Er. Right, yeah, I’ll do that,” he mumbled.

 

“Ah! I felt something brush against me!” Ron said with a jump, wand out.

 

I rolled my eyes. “Relax, Ron. It’s just one of the cats.” Probably.

 

We entered a conference room not dissimilar to the one we had been in on the floor above, albeit made of dark stone-- both the room and the long ovular table surrounded by eight ridgid chairs which formed the centerpiece; the only thing modern, and therefore seeming rather out-of-place, was a cheap stained counter, upon which lay a small coffee and tea bar, with an attached sink along one wall. And, of course, torches rather than magical lights, which had burst into flame upon entering. Come to think of it, it was rather creepy a department. Maybe we should replace those torches with regular lights and paint the walls, or at least put up some cheerful posters. I put the coffee pot on; perhaps the warm smell would make things seem less eerie to them.

 

“Okay, I have the books,” Draco said as he entered the room, placing a stack of books and a stone box on the table.

 

“Are you the only two who work here?” Ginny asked curiously.

 

“Yeah, mate, you never mentioned that before,” Ron added.

 

“He’s never mentioned anything about his work before,” Dean pointed out, rolling his eyes. “But seriously, you two are the only ones here? Why? And that room--”

 

“Do not talk about that room,” I told him firmly. He got the message, it seemed, so I continued with the other question. “Yes, it’s just us now. There were more, but… well, let’s not get into that. Now it’s just us and the cats.” Speak of the devil-- Selardi, one of our cats, black with a white splash on her forehead and tail tip, jumped onto the table purring, and I obliged her request to be pet.

 

“About that…” Ernie began. “Why do you two get pets? None of the other departments are permitted them.”

 

“Hey, we have a pet with the aurors, did you forget? A nice bloodhound.” Ginny ruffled Ron’s hair.

 

“Hey! Just because my animagus is a dog doesn’t mean I’m a pet!”

 

“How about you lot stop fooling around so we can work on this case?” Draco scolded them coldly. They were quiet, and began looking through files again. I love how he can do that-- the room can be full of chaos, yet with just a few non-magical words, Draco can make it quiet. I love it. Er, that trait, not him. I mean, I  _ like _ him, like a friend, but not in the way the Daily Prophet’s rumor column claims. Just because I’m single doesn’t mean... anyway, back to the case.

 

“So, I guess I ought to tell you what specifically we study here, before you try to find out yourself.” I looked pointedly at Dean, who looked away guiltily. “We study a myriad of things. Unexplainable phenomenon. Eldritch creatures. Ancient tomes and arcane writings. Oneiric happenings. Cultist ideologies relating to such. That last one is why we were asked to work with you.”

 

“But, we investigate new cults frequently, muggle and magical,” Ernie pointed out. “The Unspeakables have never needed to get involved before.”

 

“That’s because,” Draco answered, “we believe this cult actually has some stock in it.”

 

“Seriously?” Ron asked skeptically. “How could you? We know next to nothing about it, looking at this. Just a few hints of a cult, really, and some strange writings and figurines.”

 

“And what happened to Susan and Dennis,” I pointed out. “Susan was speaking in tongues, and the marks on Dennis indicate that they encountered something that was not of this world. One of those things that drive most men to madness. Seeing this tablet, and the likeness of that little statue you’re holding, Dean, only makes us more certain that they are worshipping something not from our plane of existence. Most likely something from this book.” I carefully lifted a book from the pile, one written in Latin-- one of the languages I had to learn to work this job, as many occult tomes are in such-- and opened to a page depicting a rough design of a creature similar to the little statue whose inscription was written in the same strange writing from the tablet. I held it out to them carefully, letting them have a good look, pulling it back when Ernie tried to touch it.

 

“Hey, what gives?” he asked, clearly confused.

 

“Looking at this book too much can lead to obsession and loss of sanity,” I informed him, putting it back into the pile.

 

“You can’t be serious.”

 

“We’re very serious,” Draco asserted. “The Necronomicon has led to more than a few people descending so far into madness that they took their own life. We can't risk any of you becoming one of those people.”

 

“Anyway, so this is almost definitely an actual thing they are worshipping,” I told the aurors. “What needs to be determined, though, is if they merely got ahold of some ancient artifacts and decided to have some fun, which then led to a compulsion to worship the being, or if they actually knew what they were doing from the start. The former is easy to deal with, but the latter could be trouble. Oh, and we need to know if they’ve actually managed to communicate with it. But we, er, better hope it wasn’t summoned...”

 

“I’m sure it wasn’t summoned. If it were, we’d know it,” Draco insisted. I wasn’t quite sure of the truth of that statement, seeing as the tablet essentially read ‘return what you stole or they all die,’ but let it go-- didn’t want to cause unnecessary panic.

 

“Hold on, can we address something else?” Ron piped up. “You two have been working together alone here? Since when is that a thing? You said there were more people before. What happened to them? There must have been a fair number, for a department this large, unless most the dozen or so rooms are storage.”

 

“Er. Well, there used to be seven of us,” I reluctantly admitted, knowing he’d keep pressing. “But things happened, and now there’s just us.”

 

“But what things? Why haven’t your colleges been replaced? Was it recent?” 

 

I let out a sigh. “Well, we lost the first two a few years back, then two went about a year ago, and the last one four months ago. They haven’t been replaced yet because it’s really difficult to find people with the right criteria who are willing to study these things… anyway, back to the case!”

 

“Oh, no,” Ginny said. “You are not changing the subject. What happened to them?”

 

“Well... two are missing, two are dead, and the last is in St. Mungo’s Janus Thickey Ward. Now, can we--”

 

“What specifically happened?”

 

“That’s confidential.”

 

“Mate, we really should know,” Ron said, reason in his voice. “Are we at risk by being here?”

 

“You’re aurors. You’re always at risk.”

 

“More risk than usual, you know that’s what I meant…”

 

Draco sighed. “Harry, let’s just tell them. They’ll only keep pressing.”

 

“...Fine. You tell them, then.”

 

“Okay… so, the first one wandered off with this mysterious key said to enter the world of dreams, and never returned. The one at St. Mungo’s and another went to explore some strange underground village beneath the remains of an old castle; she could barely talk about it afterwards, but from what we gather he was partly devoured by a swarm of rats, although there’s also evidence she helped too. The most recent one vanished in here while performing an experiment.” Said experiment most definitely not being a forbidden ritual. Seriously! Not. A. Ritual.

 

The four aurors looked at the two unspeakables in horror.  “Please tell me you’re joking, and they actually just retired or quit,” Ernie said meekly.

 

I gave him a wan smile. “Nope. It’s all true. The type of things we study here… well, let’s just say they can be much more dangerous than even dark magic. Now, let’s get back to examining those files.”

 

“Wait, that’s only four accounted for,” Dean noticed. “What about the last dead one.”

 

Though uneasy, I decided to answer this. “He and I went to explore a strange crypt shortly after I joined. I made it out, he didn’t. No more questions now, back to work.” 

 

But of course, there was one more question, from an uneasy-looking Ernie. “So, what happened to your predecessors? Assuming you replaced people.”

 

Draco answered this time. “One went completely mad after reading a book that has since been burned, saying he was a disciple of some king who gave him orders to murder the department. He got one person before he was apprehended. So he’s in Azkaban and the other is dead. Now, as Harry just said, we need to get back to work.”

 

The others, all seeming very disconcerted, got back to examining the evidence.

 

“Um, Harry?” Ginny asked after a bit. “You have a loo down here, right?” 

 

“Uh, yeah, third door on the right,” I told her distractedly.

 

“Thanks.” As she ran out, I realized there might be a problem. This was confirmed upon hearing a scream.

 

“Don’t,” I told the others, as they went to check. “She’ll be fine.” They looked at me skeptically.

 

“What the bloody hell is in that bathtub?” Ginny demanded upon her return.

 

“Bloody hell… that seems like an accurate description,” I mused with a chuckle. “Don’t concern yourself with it.”

 

“Concern herself with what?” Ron asked suspiciously, ever the protective brother.

 

“There is what appears to be a burning tentacled cat sleeping in a half-filled tub of blood,” Ginny replied swiftly.

 

“Yeah, it’s fine though,” I assured them. “Cthugha’s friendly.”

 

“It’s a flaming tentacled cat drenched in blood!”

 

“So it has been established,” I said nonchalantly. “Like I said, we study strange things here.” Ginny merely looked at me in bafflement.

 

“If you think that’s odd, don’t go near that room I went into,” Dean muttered, with a shiver.

 

“Er. This cat doesn’t have anything strange about her, does she?” Ron asked nervously, in reference to the cat rubbing against his legs.

 

“Nah, Selardi’s just a vampire,” Draco casually lied. “Probably the least strange thing here, to be honest.” Apparently, the others did not think so, from their expressions; Ron leapt backwards, tripping over her. “Oh, don’t worry about it. She won’t bite humans, you can pet her.”

 

“Meow!” Selardi said happily, jumping on the table, demanding pets from Ron, who nervously gave her them once he stood back up.

 

“The tablet is definitely similar to ours,” Draco suddenly declared. The box he had brought was open, revealing a tablet with similar symbols as the one in evidence. “But, they’re related to different beings.”

 

“You’re sure of that?” I asked him. “Completely sure? There’s no chance this case--”

 

“It’s unrelated,” Draco assured me, though he seemed unsure.

 

“Unrelated to what?” Ginny demanded, folding her arms.

 

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” I told her.

 

Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “I thought we were supposed to be all working together. No hiding anything related to the case.”

 

“It’s only tangentially related though…”

 

“Okay, fine,” Draco butted in. “The experiment that made our cohort vanish involved a tablet like this. We thought perhaps they’d be the same, in which case our investigation would become much easier. But the one from evidence is not the same, though it is very similar.”

 

“What language is it even in?” asked Ernie curiously. 

 

“Naacal. There’s a key to it here, in this book,” I told him, handing him one from the pile. “We’ll need to use that book for more than just the language key, though. We’ll need to compare it to the evidence-- it has descriptions and lists the practices of various ancient cults and the monsters they worship. As far as we know, few of the cults are extant, and the ones that are have so far been benign, but if a more dangerous one is being revived then this will tell us. If it’s newer one, though, the book won’t be of help, as it was published in 1839.”

 

Ernie stared at the cover. “‘Unaussprechlichen Kulten’? Er. This is in German…”

 

“Brilliant observational skills,” Draco drawled sarcastically, but with a slight smile to indicate he was merely teasing. I taught him to do that; apparently he hadn’t realized that a lot of people missed the subtleness of his humor. “Don’t worry. Harry and I can read it.”

 

“What! Since when do you know that?” Ron proclaimed. “Harry, there’s no way you learned German, Latin, and that Naacal thing in such a short time.”

 

“Er. I’ve been in this department five years already,” I pointed out. “That’s more than enough time to learn, especially since a large amount of occult manuscripts are written in German or Latin. And the Naacal is only the basics; we both still need the guide for most of it.”

 

“While you’re doing that, maybe we can interview some of the people on the list?” Ginny suggested. “And it might be best to look at the homes of some who have vanished; there’s notes on such here, but as we now know it’s probably cult-related, perhaps it’s a good idea to check again, see if there’s clues they missed.”

 

“Good idea. But, let’s not interview the potential cult members yet; I’d like to know more about the cult itself first, and how the victims were related to it. So far, there are eight disappearances-- we’ll split into two groups, each taking four of them. They were all living alone with no close familial ties, so we’ll particularly need to ascertain if they were taken unwillingly because of such, or if they were cult members themselves. Draco, go with Ginny and Ernie; I’ll go with Dean and Ron.” Keeping them with their usual partner seemed best, as they’d work together better, and of course I was not going to force Draco and Ron to work together-- that would be disastrous!

  
  


*******

  
  


“So what exactly are we supposed to be looking for…?” Dean ventured, inspecting a shelf with various glass objects.

 

“Anything that looks mysterious or cultish,” I replied, searching the bookshelf. “Anything ancient, too, and ritual items. Oh, and strange symbols and designs.”

 

“Oh! I found something!” Ron said, excitedly rushing over with a piece of paper. “Look, this pattern could be some sort of ritual diagram, right?” 

 

Before I could see it, Dean bust out laughing. Upon taking it from Ron, I smiled, realizing why. I tried not to laugh though, seeing as he grew up in the wizarding world, thus wouldn’t know. Tried not to. It was quite obvious I was trying not to, and Ron looked upset.

 

“What’s so funny?” he asked, clearly hurt. “You said to look for strange symbols and designs…”

 

“Sorry, sorry,” I said, somehow managing to contain my amusement. “That’s what muggles call mathematics. It’s not magic.”

 

Ron merely continued to be confused. “I know what maths is! But I thought that involved numbers? This has all sorts of lines and symbols and letters!”

 

“Trust me, it’s only math. The bloke has a lot of books on it, it seems; he must study it. Nothing mysterious about it.”

 

“Speak for yourself,” Dean muttered. “Hey, what’s this?” He used his foot to push a rug aside a little, revealing a very large and complex circular symbol along with what looked like scorch marks. “Well, hello, there. This is definitely not math.”

 

I widened my eyes upon seeing the design. If they had tried again without us… no, they wouldn’t do that. I explained to the aurors what they had found. “A ritual diagram. I think it’s safe to say that this person was most definitely a cultist.”

 

“I don’t know,” Ron muttered, down on the ground, examining the symbol’s lines. “This wasn’t in the report, and the design seems fairly fresh. I think someone returned here after Susan and Dennis investigated.”

 

“Hmm. Interesting,” I mused, despite knowing what it was and who had most likely put it there. She was probably still in the house, watching us. “Dean, you have a camera, correct? Could you get a photo of this?”

 

“Uh, yeah, one sec,” Dean drew a small bag from his robe pocket; he submerged nearly his whole arm into it and ruffled around before finally withdrawing a camera three times the bag’s size. I’ll never get tired of seeing magic like that.

 

Suddenly, all three of us had our wands drawn. We had heard a rattling sound from the floor above. Without speaking, we slowly ascended the stairs. A door was slightly ajar; a small thud was heard from inside. We crept over to it, Ron in the lead. He carefully opened the door--

 

“Selardi!” I called happily, dashing in and picking up my cat, who purred in my arms.

 

“Y-your cat? You brought your cat here?” Ron said faintly.

 

“No, she followed me. That’s what she does.”

 

“But… how did she get out of the Ministry?” Dean wondered.

 

I merely shrugged. “Selardi does what she wants… oh? What’s that you have in your mouth?” I extracted the tiny item from between her fangs, making sure not to touch them. Then, I frowned at the small medallion. Had they not believed me when I said such wouldn’t work? Still, this could be useful. “Perhaps this person was not a cult member after all,” I said carefully. “This is a charm to protect against the type of deity the cult seems to worship.”

 

“It also is possible they were in the cult, then wanted out,” Ron reasoned.

 

I shook my head. “No. If they were already influenced by such a being, the talisman wouldn’t work.” I tossed Ron the coin-like object, which began to glow faintly as he held it.

 

“Er. Why’s it glowing?” the redhead questioned.

 

“Means it’s working. Probably reacting to the sigil downstairs.”

 

Ron look confused, beginning to quietly say “But it wasn’t glowing for--”

 

“How did the cat even know to look for that?” Dean interrupted in wonder, not realizing Ron had been speaking. Good.

 

“Selardi can sense things,” I answered. “Oh! Speaking of sensing things: Ron, could you be a dog now? See if you smell anything, such as if it was only the missing person in here, or if there were others, and whatnot.”

 

“Sure thing!” Within a second, a bloodhound was standing where Ron had been. He always enjoyed helping via his dog form. He sniffed around a bit, then… then he froze, staring directly at me and Selardi, surprise and confusion evident.

 

I looked at him with apprehension. What was he smelling? “Stop staring at me and search for clues.”

 

Ron became human again. “Explain why your cat doesn’t smell like a cat,” he demanded.

 

I relaxed slightly. “Oh. Well, I told you before; she’s a vampire. That’s probably why she smells different.”

 

Ron shook his head. “No. There’s something else. Something’s not right. You’re not right. There’s something off about both you and the cat…” He seemed to be extremely fearful and suspicious.

 

Dean narrowed his eyes at me. “Something’s been bugging me, too. That experiment that caused your cohort to vanish, the one involving the tablet. What exactly did it do?” He tried to look more like he was suspicious too, but his I could tell it was closer to harmless curiosity. Interesting.

 

“Nothing. It failed,” I lied, indiscriminately drawing my wand. 

 

“Well, then, what was it intended--”

 

“Expelliarmus!”

 

I shouted out in surprise as my wand flew from my hand. “What the hell, Ron?!”

 

“Sorry, mate. You know us aurors, trained to react when someone seems about to cast a spell on us. Clearly you are trying to hide exactly what that experiment was, and its relation to the current case-- they’re definitely related, it’s obvious; we want to know the full truth, now.”

 

“Look, I’m the head of this case--”

 

“No, from what I can tell, you’re part of it,” Ron insisted. Perhaps he’s a bit more insightful than I give him credit for, although his conclusion was entirely incorrect. Well, mostly. The tablet ritual had been unrelated to this, at least.

 

“I’m not,” I asserted. “What’s gotten into you, Ron? We’re best mates!”

 

“Sure as hell don’t smell like it. Incarcerous!” Ropes flew from Ron’s wand to circle my wrists and ankles, knocking me to the floor. “Now, you tell us, or we’re taking you in to interrogation.”

 

I cringed. “You don’t want to do this, Ron. Seriously.”

 

“No, but I have-- aaah!” Ron flew back into the wall and my bindings burnt to cinder. 

 

“Grrrrr,” Selardi warned, standing next to me, eyes glowing red.

 

I stood. Ron was unconscious it seemed, and Dean was simply standing there in shock by the doorway. I looked at him and shrugged. “Well, he’s right: she isn’t a normal cat.”

 

“She won’t attack me, too, will she?” Dean asked tepidly.

 

“Only if you attack me,” I replied. “Do you plan to attack me?”

 

“No…” 

 

“Good, then it’s not a problem. Let’s go.” Protocol would call for them to be obliviated to hide such an incident; I’m not sure why I didn’t… actually, I suppose I do know why. It’s difficult to do such to friends, no matter how likely such a decision is to bite you in the ass later.

  
  


*******

  
  


Ron was, understandably, quite pissed at me, but after a scolding from Ginny he ended up sheepishly approaching me, apologizing for attacking, promising not to keep pressing when I clearly don’t wish to divulge something, and assuring me he still trusted me. He blamed the dog senses on making him become so suspicious and act so aggressively-- fearful, even-- as it really had been a strange smell Selardi gave off. Well, it makes sense she would, as she’s a demon from-- I mean, a vampire cat who happens to have some magic, after all. Definitely not something we accidentally summoned. She’s still from Earth, as I swore to in front of the Wizengamot. The bloody tentacled cat is, too, for the record-- just an ill-fated experiment, not at all something unearthly. Anyway, after a couple days, he settled down about it, and all was more or less back to normal.

 

Dean, however, was taking the everything much better than could be expected of most people unacquainted with our work. The incident with Ron hadn’t seemed to bother him, and most people would need obliviation after seeing the horror in that room, yet he was merely slightly shaken up. He was also fully accepting now that we wouldn’t tell everything. Plus, he was showing interest in Selardi and other strange things of our department-- no fear, just calm curiosity. Very open-minded; he’d been that way in school, as well. I thought perhaps he’d fit right in with the department, if he’d be willing to retire his auror robes, so I confronted him about it.

 

“You want me to become part of this department?” Dean asked in wonder.

 

“Well, you seem to be showing an interest, and aren’t as affected by the things in here as others tend to be. You also seem to fully accept everything we say without question-- almost like you’ve encountered such strangeness before?”

 

Dean shifted nervously. “Well… maybe. I’ve never told anyone this before, but I used to have these strange dreams as a kid, where I’d travel to a different world--  a strange world, yes, but I am positive it exists on some plane, since my great-uncle would tell me similar tales of it. He also kept strange books similar to the ones you’re studying. He’d explore old ruins and abandoned buildings and things, and took me to one once. I can’t exactly explain what it was we saw, but it was definitely not of this world. Completely unnameable, even. I can’t even begin to describe it with human words.”

 

“That sounds exactly like the type of thing we study!” I said, barely containing my excitement. “Was your uncle in this department?”

 

“No-- as far as I know, he was a muggle, though he did attempt minor rituals and things. As a kid, my mum would tell me he was quite mad and not to listen to him, but upon learning I was a wizard, her opinion on that changed, although unfortunately by then he had passed, or at least we think he did.”

 

“You think he did?”

 

“Yeah. All they found was a large puddle of blood in his house. We assume it was his, but, well, you can never know, can you? Besides, even if he wasn’t dead then, he probably is now-- that was nearly twenty years ago, and he was ancient.”

 

“Wow. Do you have anything left of his? Like the books or ritual materials?”

 

“Maybe. I can ask my mum if there’s anything in the attic; he never had kids of his own, so passed his things onto his nieces and nephews instead-- that is, my mum and her cousins.”

 

“Great! So… perhaps you would like to follow in his footsteps…?”

 

Dean chuckled. “You’re that desperate for coworkers, huh? Getting bored of Draco? Or need someone to keep you two from getting distracted?” He winked.

 

“What? No!” I tried not to blush at the implication, but from Dean’s ‘knowing’ look, I failed. “It’s not like that…” It really isn’t, despite what Witch Weekly claims. We’re both single, true, but that’s merely because we’re always so immersed in our work, not to mention the danger anyone we date would be in. If that causes rumors, so be it-- we’ve both been in the papers for all sorts of things, true and untrue, and have learned that trying to explain falsities only leads to people believing them more.

 

“Sure it isn’t. Okay, you’ve got me-- I’ll join your department. Who do I need to talk to?”

 

“Just me. Draco and I are in charge of this department, since we’re the only two left-- we don’t even report to the Department of Mysteries head, not really. If we want someone in, we tell them of course, but we’re not required to report on anything else.”

 

“So, you’re basically some sort of secret sub-department within the Department of Mysteries?” Dean asked curiously. “Meaning, you can do whatever you want, even engage in forbidden experiments?”

 

“Technically, yes…”

 

Dean grinned. “Excellent. Fill me in on what you’re worked on? Is the parseltongue one of them, and if so, can I learn it? What about the tentacled cat? And can I finally learn about the things in that room?”

 

I smirked. “Yes, I think you’ll fit right in with us.”

  
  


*******

  
  


“What do you mean, you’re not going to be my partner anymore?!” Ron’s shocked voice came as I entered the meeting room the next day. It seemed I was the last one to arrive… oh, wait. Ernie wasn’t there either.

 

“Exactly what I said,” Dean replied. “I’m not going to be an Auror anymore.”

 

“But we’re in the middle of a case!”

 

“I am aware.” Dean was very calm compared to Ron.

 

“Dean, stop teasing,” I chided. “Just tell him. Besides, you’re acting eerily like Draco right now-- not that that’s a bad thing!” I added that last bit when the aforementioned blonde gave me a glare.

 

Dean actually pouted at that, though in a teasing manner still. “Oh, fine. Ron, I’ll still be working the case, don’t worry-- just as part of the Unspeakables instead.”

 

“What? Seriously?” Ron said, flabbergasted.

 

Ginny sighed dramatically. “Great, first I lose my partner to the Unspeakables, and now I’ve lost my husband to them. Ron, you better not run off to them next!”

 

“Yeah, no, I think I’ll skip working in a dungeon with blood-covered cats doing a job that has a mortality rate about ten times worse than the aurors.”

 

“Well, actually,” I began to correct, then considered the statistics. “Er. You know, I think it actually might be that high, come to think of it.”

 

A knock sounded on the doorway. “Harry?” asked a quiet voice, belonging to a petite girl with long curly blonde hair and large blue eyes surrounded by the largest spectacles I’ve ever seen, bright yellow in color.

 

“Hey, Luna. Something the matter?” I asked. She worked in the main circle of the Department of Mysteries. We’re not quite sure how she’s able to get down here to our section, but she does. No one is quite sure what she researches, either, but she walked in one day declaring she would henceforth be working there and no one questioned it.

 

Luna held out what appeared to be a tiny pig, no bigger than a kitten, with dainty fairy wings attached to its shoulders. “I accidentally turned that auror boy you were working with into this.”

 

“Ernie?”

 

“Yes, him. I don’t know how to turn him back.” She walked forwards and placed Ernie on the table, who trotted over to Ron and began eating the muffin he’d brought.

 

“Hey! That’s my breakfast!” Ron complained.

 

“He doesn’t seem to realize he’s human,” Luna explained.

 

I sighed. “Bring him to the time room; I’m sure they can reverse it easily.” They’d helped us before with such; they were currently working on a device that could return anything to its prior physical state, although had only managed to get it to go back a few hours only on non-magical things. But when all the kinks were worked out, even that much would help greatly at St. Mungo’s.

 

“Oh, I tried that, and other things. He seems to be immune to magic. I believe he will permanently be a fairy-pig. Perhaps you would like him as a pet?”

 

“Luna!” Ginny burst, aghast. “You can’t just make him someone’s pet! Take him to St. Mungo’s, see if they can fix him!”

 

“But our medical facilities here are better than the ones there.”

 

“Wait, what? We have medical facilities?” Ron asked curiously.

 

“Why, yes. They’re run by the people in charge of the biological experimentation lab. It is quite necessary to have them; Draco and Harry frequent it regularly.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Well, because they--”

 

“Okay, that’s enough, Luna, see you later!” Draco said, guiding her out of the room and shutting the door.

 

“Squeee! Squeee!” squealed Ernie, now in a fight with Ginny over her breakfast-- unlike Ron, she was not allowing the fairy pig to take her bagel. Angry, the pig darted off down the hallway after barrelling through the door; Draco, closest to the door, quickly used reparo to fix the hole in the door and followed.

 

“So… I guess I’m out of an auror partner, again?” Ginny awkwardly joked, about ten minutes later, trying to ease the tension that had settled once Ernie’s status fully set in.

 

“Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll find something to fix him,” I told her.

 

“No, we won’t,” Draco said morbidly, face pale, as he reentered the room-- without the pig. That was not a good sign.

 

“What happened?” I asked nervously.

 

“He… well, he escaped to the upper levels, causing quite a bit of havoc, and ended up in the death chamber, where he… well, he went through the Veil.”

 

“The Veil?” I’m sure my face went white. “But, that room was sealed off years ago. Bricked in.” After some more incidents with the Veil after Sirius, and a lot of public outcry after its existence had been leaked, the Ministry decided to destroy it, only to find that apparently it couldn’t be. So they’d completely sealed the room in.

 

“Yeah. Apparently fairy-pigs created by Luna can break through bricks as though they were butter.”

  
  


*******

  
  


“You have to be joking,” Robards said flatly, unamused at the first bit of news Dean and I had disclosed.

 

“Afraid not,” Dean told him, trying to sound apologetic, but Robard’s expression told he’d failed at such. 

 

“But Thomas, you’re one of my best! You can’t just leave!” Robards turned to me. “And you can’t just take whomever you want!”

 

“Look,” I sighed. “We’ve been short-staffed for a while, and it’s much more difficult to find someone fit to fill such a position in our department than it is to find an auror. Specific qualities are needed, and the nature of what we study is such that many people are disturbed upon learning of it. Dean, however, has instead taken an immense interest, and seems to tick all boxes on the specifications required. I’m sorry, but he’s one of us now.”

 

“You make it sound like a cult,” the Head Auror grumbled, then sighed. “Fine. But now we’re going to be extremely short-staffed-- that’s three aurors gone within the week, you know!”

 

I cringed. “Actually, four…”

 

“What?”

 

“Well, there’s something else I need to tell you… it seems that Ernie MacMillan has been lost in the line of duty.”

 

“Lost in the line of duty… you’re saying he’s dead?”

 

“Yes, I am.”

 

Robards turned to Dean, seemingly hoping he’d say otherwise, but Dean merely nodded his head in confirmation. He was unable to respond for a moment, clearly confused as to how to respond, but finally managed to speak. “How? Was it the same way Creevey died?”

 

“Well, no, not exactly… er, I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you.”

 

Robards narrowed his eyes. “Try me.”

 

I sighed. “Well, there was a slight mishap in the Department of Mysteries that turned him into a tiny pig with fairy wings. He panicked, flying everywhere, and eventually ending up flying through the Veil in the Death Room.”

 

“The Veil? Wasn’t that bricked in?”

 

“Apparently fairy-pigs can bust through brick walls.”

 

“And out of Veils,” Draco said, smirking, as he entered the office, holding the struggling fairy-pig by the wings, then frowned. “At least, I think it’s him. No one saw him come out, but he appeared in the conference room, and pretty sure there’s no other fairy-pigs in existence…”

 

Robards looked slightly faint, though his relief that Ernie was at least alive was clear. “That’s MacMillan? You can change him back, right?”

 

“Unfortunately, not that we know of,” I told the man somberly. “Before they told us about him, apparently they tried to fix it, but couldn’t-- and they have everything St. Mungo’s does plus many experimental things. For all intents and purposes, he’s a fairy-pig now.”

 

“They did say they’ll keep him in mind when new things are discovered that may help, though,” Draco pitched in. 

 

“I see… well, er, this is quite unprecedented…” Robards mused. “We’ll need to figure out what to do with him…”

 

“We?” I asked. “We’re working on a case, and really must be getting back, especially that we’re down a team member… we’ll let you take care of it.” I grabbed Dean’s and Draco’s arms and dashed away, leaving the sounds of a squealing pig and angry Head Auror behind me.

 

We caught our breaths in the elevator, of which somehow the three of us managed to find devoid of other people.

 

“Man, he’s going to kill you!” Dean laughed.

 

“I’d like to see him try.” I grinned, then turned to Draco. “So, did Ernie really get out of the veil on his own, or did he have help?”

 

“Help, of course,” the blonde replied. “Or, I assume so. Selardi and Crimson left together and then returned with him.”

 

I nodded. “Makes sense.” 

 

“I elect we go on break now. I’m in the mood for a coffee, you know, and there’s that new cafe everyone’s been talking about…” Draco hinted.

 

I rolled my eyes. “The world’s biggest tea-lover is in the mood for coffee, right. You just want to go because it’s a cat-cafe.”

 

“A cat-cafe?” Dean’s eyes lit up. “You mean, one of those things where you get to hang out with cats while having lunch?”

 

“The very sort,” Draco confirmed. “But it’s because I hear the food is good, not just because of the cats!”

 

“Right, keep telling yourself that, Draco,” I teased. “Okay, I’ll send a memo down to Ron and Ginny to let them know.”

 

“No need. Before bringing Ernie to Robards I told them to take their lunch breaks.”

 

Dean looked at Draco oddly. “Separately than us? Did you not want them going to the cafe?”

 

“Nope.” Dreaco grinned. “We have a lot to talk to you about, young Unspeakable.”

  
  


*******

  
  


“Hmm. Aren’t we late getting back?” Dean asked, when we returned to the department. “And they started their lunch a bit sooner than us… so where are they?”

 

I looked around, then noticed a piece of paper on the counter. “Hey, they left a note, look…” I paled as I read. “Oh no.”

 

“What’s wrong?” Dean inquired.

 

As I didn’t respond, Draco gently took the note from my hands, reading it. “Ah. It seems there’s possibly been another disappearance…”

 

“Who?”

 

“Percy Weasley.”

  
  


*******

  
  


“I don’t understand!” Ron said anxiously. “This doesn’t match the pattern at all!”

 

We were all gathered at the flat Percy lived at with his wife, Audrey, and their two young daughters, Molly and Lucy. After questioning her, Ron suggested Audrey take her daughters to his mother’s, so they could investigate the scene.

 

“It is awfully suspicious,” Draco mused. “He has a large family who obviously would notice immediately if he vanished, unlike all the other victims.” 

 

“Also,” Ron interrupted, “he is definitely not the type of person to engage in rituals or cults.”

 

“Yet there’s symbols drawn on the floor and Naacal writing on a paper, again,” Dean added, skeptically. “You know, perhaps we should call more neutral parties in, rather than his siblings--”

 

“No,” I insisted. “We’re not getting more people involved in it. Or haven’t you noticed that already three people of the eight who have worked on the case are out of commission?”

 

“What does the paper even say?” Ginny wondered, turning to me and Draco for an answer.

 

An answer that Draco and I did not want to give, though reluctantly divulged:  _ This will not stop unless what was taken is returned. _

 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Ron wondered.

 

I looked nervously at Draco.  _ “That isn’t referring to what I think it’s referring to, is it?”  _ I asked in parseltongue.  _ “Please tell me it isn’t.” _

 

Draco looked grim.  _ “I fear it must be.” _

 

_ “But we can’t return it.” _

 

_ “I am well aware.” _

 

“What the bloody hell are you two talking about?” Ron asked belligerently. 

 

“Ah, sorry, bad habit-- didn’t mean to slip into parseltongue,” I lied. “We were discussing what it might be referring to, but we honestly have no idea.”

 

“Then what was with that face you made, Draco?” Ginny asked.

 

“Well, anyone would make such a face upon realizing that something apparently thinks you have something of its which you don’t have but will keep killing until you return it,” Draco replied smoothly.

 

“Killing?!”

 

“No, no, slip of the tongue! He meant vanishing,” I corrected. “We have no proof they’re dead!”

 

Ron slumped his shoulders. “It’s true though, isn’t it?”

 

Ginny pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. “Harry James Potter. You know something about this that you aren’t telling us,” she accused in a voice scarily imitative of her mother.

 

I bit my bottom lip. Should we tell them? No, we couldn’t do that. We had to find this thing and get rid of it. We could tell Dean; he was one of us now, and wouldn’t say anything. But those two were aurors, and were pretty loyal ones, friendships aside. I mean, they probably wouldn’t report it, but the real issue was the pain and confusion--

 

“Harry!”

 

“Sorry, Ginny!” I replied quickly. “Er. Well, that’s confidential!”

 

Ron raised an eyebrow. “I thought you agreed to tell us everything potentially case-related.”

 

“Well, yes, but--”

 

“Uh-uh. You’re going to tell us, or we stop working the case.”

 

A gasp sounded from off to the side; it seemed Draco had been filling Dean in, whose expression was one of shock.

 

“What’s wrong, Dean?” Ginny asked.

 

Dean shook his head. “No, it’s nothing, sorry,” he said quickly.

 

“Okay, you’re going to tell us right now what happened to my brother!” Ron roared. “I know you know! Where did he disappear to?”

 

I looked at Draco, who met my eyes, and I gulped slightly. Would we have to divulge it?

 

Draco sighed. “Okay, we’ll tell you.” Well, guess that solved that. “We’re pretty sure the… Thing… Percy encountered is not human, rather one of the deities the tablets speak of.”

 

“We already gathered that. What did it do with him?” Ron demanded. 

 

“Not sure,” Draco answered. “Honest. But we do know what it wants… providing it is the same Thing we encountered once before.”

 

Ginny gasped. “YOU encountered it? Did you… did you summon it?”

 

“No. Well, not exactly. Not intentionally. It was a ritual that allowed us to contact the... ‘other side,’” Draco explained. Technically true. “But the Thing intervened. It was conveying that something was stolen from it. It tried to come through the Veil, but we ended the ritual before it could, or at least we thought we did.”   
  


“What was stolen?” she asked, calmer than expected.   
  
“The books claim that it eats souls, so presumably it wants such.” Specific ones, but they didn’t need to know that.

 

“So, like a dementor?”

 

“No, it eats dementors; they have many souls inside them, after all.”

 

Ron gasped, eyes wide. “Shit. And you two saw this thing?”

 

I nodded. “Yes, and hoped to leave the memory of it long in the past.”

 

“It’s really that bad? What’s it look like?”

 

“Well,” I replied carefully, “The Thing doesn’t really have a describable form…”

 

“So it’s some sort of spirit?” Ginny ventured.

 

“No, it has a form. You just can’t describe it.”

 

“Nothing is indescribable.”

 

“If you saw the Thing, you’d think otherwise.”

 

“Fine. Twenty questions then. Is it big or small?”

 

“Both.”

 

“It can’t be both.”

 

“The Thing is both.”

 

“...whatever. Corporal or intangible?”

 

“Both.”

 

“Again, it can’t be.”

 

“But the Thing is.”

 

“Fine. Does it have teeth?”

 

“You could say that, I suppose.”

 

“Oh good, we’re getting somewhere. Number of limbs?”

 

“Infinite, yet none.”

 

“That doesn’t make sense. Color?”

 

“All of them.”

 

“So, multi-colored? Or shifting colors?”

 

“No. All of them. All at once. Solidly every color.”

 

“Right. Totally possible. General shape?”

 

“The Thing has none.”

 

“So, some sort of abnormal blob?”

 

“No, the Thing literally has no shape.”

 

Ginny sighed; it seemed she had dismissed as hopeless asking more questions about how the Thing looked. “Harry, you’re sounding like you belong at St. Mungo’s.”

 

“Well, he told you the Thing was indescribable,” a bemused Draco told her.

 

“Forget about what it looks like,” Ron interjected. “What did it do with Percy? And those other people? I know you know, don’t try to say you don’t again.”

 

I shrugged, giving in to his request. “Devoured their souls, I would assume. That’s what the Thing does, as I mentioned previously.”

 

“R-right, you did,” Ron stuttered. “Er. Should we really be continuing with the investigation, in that case?”

 

“Considering it sounds like it’ll keep devouring people, probably,” Dean replied.

 

“Why were you trying to contact the other side in the first place?” Ginny asked, a slight suspicious look beginning to form. She couldn’t know, could she?

 

I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible, not letting emotion get in the way. “It’s our job to research such.”

 

“Was it some type of dark ritual? It was, wasn’t it?” Ron demanded. “You did a dark ritual, and now some mad demon thing is on the loose!” He always got prickly when anything bad happened to his family, so I didn’t make a big deal of his attitude despite the ridiculous claims. It wasn’t a dark ritual, per se, at least not like that.

 

An aura of dawning came across Ginny. “Wait. That ritual, the one that made your cohort vanish four months ago…”

 

“No, that was something different,” I promised, then sighed. Might as well divulge that too. “That was to… well, that was how we got Selardi. She’s a demon from another plane of existence.”

 

“You traded your co-worker for a cat!?” Ron gasped.

 

“Well. Technically, no. Crimson is actually the co-worker in question, we think…”

 

Ron and Ginny stared in disbelief. Dean wasn’t saying anything, for he’d been briefed on most of it at the lunch prior. His reaction had been similar too, but eventually accepted that that type of thing was an occupational hazard, like the situation with Ernie. We hadn’t intentionally turned our co-worker into a cat-demon, after all.

 

“So, then, there’s hope?” Ron asked after a while. “If summoning Selardi just transfigured your co-worker, maybe this one’s been changing people too…”

 

I shook my head. “No, Ron, I’m sorry. I can tell you for certain they’ve been devoured. Every single one.”

 

“But why? What did they do? What did my brother do?”

 

I sighed. Ron wasn’t going to let this go until he had all the answers. Besides, he was my best friend, and Percy was his brother; he deserved to know the truth, regardless of how difficult it was. “They were all in on it.”

 

“What do you mean? There’s no way Percy, of all people, would get involved with summoning a dark creature!”

 

“Well, it’s not a dark creature, not exactly, and as I told you, we didn’t plan on it appearing.”

 

“Arcane evil god thing, then, whatever. He still wouldn’t do such.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Of course I’m sure!”

 

“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think, then.”

 

“I know my brother perfectly well, thank you very much!”

 

“Okay, that’s enough,” Draco scolded me. In English, not parseltongue; he wanted the others to hear it. Besides, they’d only demand we tell them what we say in it, anyway. “Harry, obviously his opinion isn’t changing. You knew this when you started talking. In his mind, we might as well have killed his brother; all you’re doing is taunting him, which is not becoming of someone in your current position.”

 

I crossed my arms and mimicked a pout. “I don’t see the big deal about a little taunting.”

 

Draco rolled his eyes. “Might I remind you that your taunting of the Thing is what caused all this in the first place?”

 

“MY taunting?! You were just as bad!”

 

“Yes, I was a cocky bastard too, I admit it. Honestly, at this point, why don’t we return them to the veil? It’s what the thing wants.”

 

“You know I can’t do that.”

 

“Then what do you propose we do? Our options are try to capture it, which is utterly impossible, or return them.”

 

“I can’t lose them again.”

 

Draco sighed. “Then the final option is we let the Thing take its sacrifices.”

 

“Excuse me, but what in Merlin’s name are you two talking about?” Ginny interjected. “It sounds like you partook in some sort of sacrificial ritual and conned the deity out of the sacrifices, but that can’t be right. Not only is that impossible, but for you to attempt such, of all people, Harry?” Ah, crap. We should have switched to parseltongue for that little argument.

 

I looked away, not bothering to answer.

 

“Bloody hell. You did, didn’t you?!” Ron burst. “Who is it going to take next, then? Is it going to take all of you who did it? You need to return the thing you took, then; you can’t let this killing continue!”

 

“I can’t,” I whispered, voice pained.

 

“Why not? What did it take, Harry?” Ginny was the one to ask this time, albeit carefully, quite nervous compared to Ron’s fiery demeanor. Had she caught on?

 

I looked at Ron searchingly. Dare I tell? I opened my mouth--

 

“No. Don’t, Harry,” Draco said with finality.

 

I looked away. “I have to. They deserve to know.”

 

“No. Nothing good will come from telling them.”

 

“But they’ll only keep asking.”

 

Ron narrowed his eyes, glaring at us. “Tell me. I can take it, whatever it is. Did you steal some sort of illegal arcane texts? Was it some sort of magic? Eternal life?”

 

I shook my head. “No, none of that.”

 

“Then what?”

 

“He wasn’t in the hospital, was he?” Ginny whispered, pale. Yes, she had caught on.

 

I turned to her, and whispered back, “No, he wasn’t.”

 

Ginny bit her lip as she nodded in understanding. She moved over to Dean, and he squeezed her hand, understanding as well.

 

“What’s going on?” Ron demanded. “What is it the thing wants back?”

 

I sighed, feeling like I was turning my body through molasses until I finally met Ron’s eyes. “You, Ron,” I whispered forlornly. “It’s you.”

 

Ron paled. “Me? You’re saying… I was… No. No, it can’t be.”

 

Draco growled. “See? Nothing ever good comes from telling them. Now, as per protocol, Harry--”

 

“I’m not obliviating him, Draco,” I told him with a scowl.

 

Draco shrugged. “Suit yourself. But that’s ten lives sacrificed already, and the Thing isn’t stopping.” He smirked slightly; he was enjoying this… and I must admit, I was too, somewhat. Despite the nature of the conversation, I felt in control of it. When had having control become something that pleased me?

 

“It wasn’t only him we brought back. At maximum only two of those devoured were for him. Overall, not so bad.” Merlin, if my younger self could see me now, he’d be calling me a dark wizard too; not that it’s untrue, come to think of it. But it’s all purely academic curiosity, mostly. Sure, we’ve become a bit desensitized to things as a result, but that started to happen during the auror assignments, anyway. I always seemed to be sent on the most brutal ones, as most the ‘war heroes’ were, which was one reason I had jumped at the offer to leave the aurors to become an Unspeakable, though not before it hardened me, I suppose, if my twisted emotions in this situation were any indication. Was I seriously saying the taking of human lives wasn’t so bad?

 

Ron’s response mirrored my thoughts. “Not so bad?!” Ron gasped in disbelief. “You… no. I refuse to believe it. The Harry I know would never…”

 

“Hey, it’s not like we intended this. We tried to circumvent the sacrifice aspect.”

 

“That’s not the point! Messing with such things… it’s on the level of Voldemort, Harry! Or, whoever you are.”

 

I grinned ferally, causing my friend to wince. It was probably wrong to tease him like this, but I couldn’t help it. “Whoever I am, huh? Well, no need to worry there-- I’m very much Harry Potter, promise.”

 

“No. I refuse to believe this is what my best friend has become.”

 

“Ron, shut up,” Ginny said exasperatedly. “You’ve changed too since the War, we all have. You know this. Tell me, would you not react the same if this situation were reversed?”

 

“Of course not! Would you?”

 

“Actually, yes, probably. He had an opportunity to bring you back, supposedly consequence-free; who wouldn’t take such an opportunity?”

 

Ron was left speechless, processing this. The logic was infallible; no one would say no to such, and Ron knew it.

 

“Who else was brought back?” Dean asked suddenly. “You said only two were required, yet the Thing has taken ten.”

 

Draco and I were quiet for a moment. We looked at each other nervously. Dare we tell?

 

Draco made the decision. “We were able to recover two others. We tried for more, but apparently reincarnation actually is a thing, albeit when it occurs is random, so some were unavailable.”

 

“Three? But that doesn’t add up,” Ginny said, brow furrowed. “You said it took two for Ron, but ten are dead so far, and from the sound of it, there will be more.”

 

“There were eleven directly involved, not counting me and Draco,” I told them. “But the Thing will want more sacrifices than that, although we’re not sure how many. The number required for the ritual depends on how long the subject has been dead, but we weren’t exactly paying attention to how many as we thought we had fully blocked the Thing from coming through.”

 

“Well, is there a rough estimate?”

 

“Well, it varies based on how powerful the person is, but, well, probably at least a hundred…”

 

“A hundred?!” Ginny, Dean, and Ron all exclaimed at once. An expected reaction.

 

“Just how long dead were these three others?” Ron demanded. “You didn’t bring back, say, Sirius or something, did you?”

 

“Er. Well.” He had hit the nail on the head, as the saying goes. 

 

“You did! And who else? And where are they?”

 

“In hiding,” Draco told him. “Because of this very reaction. No one knew you were dead, but everyone knew Sirius and Crabbe were.”

 

“You brought Crabbe back!?”

 

“Well, yes. He was one of my best friends in school, despite being an utter oaf. Plus, it was my fault he died--”

 

“Draco, I told you to stop blaming yourself for that,” I interjected. “It was his own damn fault, you know that.”

 

“Fine. Regardless, yes, he’s who we brought back. Everyone there chose someone; Ron, Percy chose you so Harry could choose Sirius. It’s quite cruel that even those who weren’t successful in resurrecting their loved ones are dying too.”

 

I shrugged. “It’s a subprimal horror, what do you expect?”

 

Ginny interrupted; it seemed we had started to go off on a tangent again. “I only see one option here,” she said, attempting a neural expression although clearly distraught, grappling with her thoughts. “They have to go back, no matter how much we want them to stay.”

 

“Even Ron?” Dean asked her.

 

Ginny hesitated, and Ron looked quite uncomfortable. Understandable; we were talking about, essentially, killing the man.

 

“We have to,” Ron proclaimed, with nervous confidence. “It already killed ten people, and it’s impossible to capture it. The only other option is to let it kill more, which includes both of you. Changed or not, I won’t let that happen.”

 

Draco waived his hand in a dismissive motion. “Don’t worry, you only took two sacrifices, being gone just a few days. That debt is paid.”

 

“Besides, I’m not letting Sirius be sacrificed again,” I stubbornly told him.

 

“Harry!” Ginny scolded. “You’d really let all those people die? Including yourself?”

 

“I’m not going to die,” I told her confidently. 

 

Dean narrowed his eyes, though they had a slight gleam. “Why not? Is it some sort of enchantment? Will I get that too?”

 

“Dean!” Ginny glared at her husband.

 

“Er. Sorry,” Dean said sheepishly.

 

Draco sighed as he noticed Selardi’s expression. “Enough with all the explanations; let’s just get this over with.”

 

“Meow,” Selardi agreed. She had made the decision; it had to be done. It always had to be done. We had said too much. Not like we hadn’t predicted this anyway; it had happened before, and inevitably will happen again. It was quite fun, in fact, to play around like this, and it subsided the guilt from keeping so many secrets, even if they forgot we’d told them.

 

Draco and I raised our wands. “Obli--”

 

Ginny and Ron, of course, were aurors, so had drawn their wands too, just as quickly as we had. “Protego!”

 

Our spells bounced off… but Dean’s hit both aurors at once, with the help of Selardi. Good of him; I hadn’t been fully sure of his loyalty before then. He’ll make a good Unspeakable, after all. 

 

No doubt Ron and Ginny will be asking questions the next time something like this happens, as they always do, but for now, things are good on that front. The Thing may have won this time, but perhaps next time we’ll be more successful; after all, the ritual had almost worked. We’ll need to return the other two to the Veil for now-- Sirius would be wracked with guilt knowing he’d been brought back at the sacrifice of others-- but at least Ron had been saved.

 

All we have to do now is make sure it’s properly covered up, a simple feat. No one but Draco and I will ever know exactly what happened, after all: the thirteenth and final person involved in this had been Gawain Robards, the very person who assigned us the case, unknowing that he had been involved; no one has heard from him since, nor has anyone thought to look. The Thing was annoyed that it couldn’t take Draco and I, of course, but we have Selardi’s protection. She was definitely worth the cost of summoning her.

 

Well, time to get back to my research. Don’t worry, the Thing won’t be summoned this time; we’ve perfected the formula. Yes, I’m sure we have… and if not, if anything goes wrong, we’ll just have to clean it up and try again. There’s a reason we make sure that no one we know especially well gets involved in these things, after all.


End file.
